Bonhomme promises Battle of the Blades winnings to local charity

Tessa Bonhomme has announced that if she and her partner, David Pelletier, win the CBC show Battle of the Blades, she'll donate her winnings to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure in Sudbury.

Bonhomme, a Sudbury native, was a member of the 2010 Olympic gold-winning Canadian women's hockey team.

In Battle of the Blades, hockey players learn how to figure skate and take part in a competition. The winners of the program receive money to donate to their charity of choice.

Bonhomme had a personal brush with breast cancer several years ago when she saw her grandmother, Silvia Zinn, battle breast cancer and survive, a press release from Run for the Cure stated.

The athlete is passionate about finding a cure for breast cancer so that others don’t have to watch their family members struggle through difficult treatments or lose them to the disease, the press release said.

This week is Think Pink Week, an awareness week intended to make everyone aware of the Run for the Cure event, which takes place in Sudbury at Cambrian College, starting at 9 a.m. Oct. 2.

Participants can run or walk the one kilometre or five kilometre route.

“We are asking everyone in the community to come together and Think Pink – register a team, pink up your storefront if you are a local business owner, wear pink to work/school or, have a pink party asking all of your guests to sponsor you in lieu of bringing an appetizer to the party,” Mary Katherine Coady, Sudbury Run Site co-director, said in the press release.

“Be as creative as you’d like – the goal - to have fun while increasing awareness for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure!”

For more information, visit http://cibcrunforthecure.com.